The First Hello and Every Last Goodbye
by Seito
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi was a strange child. Reborn couldn't put his finger on it. It felt… scripted, like every reaction he had received from the teenager was being acted out. Time loops
1. Chapter 1

Sawada Tsunayoshi was a strange child. Reborn couldn't put his finger on it. It felt… scripted, like every reaction he had received from the teenager was being acted out. The boy shrieked in all the right places, reacted with disbelief to the knowledge that Reborn was here to teach him how to be a mafia boss, but it felt unnatural. Like he wasn't really surprised by the news.

Now why would a boy who, according to his sources, had no knowledge of the mafia and was a civilian for all intent and purposes, not be surprised that he was going to be Decimo to the largest and most bloodthirsty mafia famiglia in the world?

Plus, there was this look in Tsuna's eyes, one Reborn couldn't place.

He put it aside for now. Reborn was in Namimori until further notice. There was time to figure it out.

Leon transformed into a gun; Dying Will Bullet readied. First, let him see how Tsuna would react to being hit by the Dying Will Bullet.

Tsuna had darted away, clumsily trying to talk to Sasagawa Kyoko. That was the girl Tsuna supposedly had a crush on.

Perfect. He could use that.

"That is the girl who you have a crush on?" Reborn asked mildly.

"No," Tsuna said, unable to keep a small smile from forming on his face.

Clearly that was a lie. "Well then die," Reborn said. He pulled the trigger, nailing Tsuna in the forehead. Predictably, Tsuna fell to the ground.

Reborn waited for the Dying Will Bullet to kick in. For the hilarious sight of Tsuna's clothing burning off, the shouting and the following chaos. It was bound to be good. The reactions to the Dying Will Bullets were legendary (and definitely blackmail worthy.)

Only Tsuna didn't get _up_.

Black eyes widened, a jolt of alarm hitting Reborn like a hammer. He hopped over to Tsuna's side. It shouldn't take this long. Seconds, that was all it took for the Dying Will Bullets to work. It was already passing the thirty second mark.

His heart squeezed tight as he realized that Tsuna wasn't breathing. Impossible. No. They weren't lethal! He touched Tsuna's neck, feeling for a pulse. Nothing. Reborn paled, expression grim. How? Dying Will Bullets didn't do that!

Unless you didn't have any regrets.

Impossible. Tsunayoshi was a teenager. Old enough to have some sort of regret. Young enough not to have come to terms with them. The setup of his life, from the bullying to the bad grades to not being unable to speak to the girl he had a crush on, everything about Tsuna's life had plenty of regrets.

Shit. How was he going to explain this to Nono? That he killed the last heir to Vongola because of his (and Vongola's) preferred training method? This was completely imposs-

Reborn woke up.

* * *

Oh man, I wanted to write this fic for a long time. -rubs hands together- I'm so excited. I hope you are too.

Please leave a review on your way out.


	2. Chapter 2

Reborn woke up. He blinked, looking out the window and recognizing the airport. His plane was taxiing to its gate.

A dream then. He didn't remember falling asleep on the plane but it was a long flight over. His mind was clearly jumping forward to teaching his newest student. Iemitsu's son. Reborn had plans for that. Was it petty to inflict pain on the son for the sins of his father? Yes. Did Reborn care? No.

After all, he was here as a favor to Nono. With any luck, the boy wouldn't be as difficult to train as Dino. Though, according to his sources, that might be a futile hope. Still he would judge for himself what kind of person Sawada Tsunayoshi was.

-.-.-

Sawada Nana was quoting, Reborn realized with horror. Exactly quoting, word for word from his dream. As if she was reading off a script. Right on cue, Tsuna came stumbling into the room, shrieking and repeating the same words he had shouted to Reborn in his dream.

This made absolutely no sense. Reborn delivered his lines perfectly, informing the mother and son why he was here, his home tutor cover (which was honestly true from a certain point of view) while his thoughts whirled. Perhaps this was a vision? Along the lines of what Luce use to see? Though it made no sense that Reborn would have that ability. It never manifested for him before. Not to mention, Luce had described her visions as flashes, not so completely vivid as if she was physically present in the vision the way his dream had been.

An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as Reborn followed after Tsuna who had dashed ahead. He found him, just like his dream, chatting to one Sasagawa Kyoko.

"That is the girl who you have a crush on?" Reborn asked mildly. He wondered if Tsuna's response would be the same.

"No," Tsuna said, unable to keep a small smile from forming on his face.

Reborn could have fired a Dying Will Bullet at this time, but his dream stayed his hand. No sense chancing anything. There would be plenty of other times to try the Dying Will Bullet. Perhaps Tsuna had been telling the truth in his dream and he didn't have a real crush on Sasagawa Kyoko.

There were records of that happening. A person's regrets weren't strong enough at the moment of dying from a Dying Will Bullet despite having other regrets that could have brought them back. It was rare. A moment of utter contentment, the stray thought of 'if I die right now, I'll be happy'. The calculated odds were one in a billion of it happening at the right moment, at the right time. (But Reborn was the best for a reason so, perhaps it was just a matter of him being too good.)

He could try it out later, with a stronger regret. Perhaps a failed test? There was plenty of ample opportunities for that.

"SAWADA!"

Reborn turned to look to see Tsuna had drifted ahead and ran straight into a taller more muscular boy.

"Mochida-senpai," Tsuna greeted meekly, ducking out of his way.

Mochida grabbed him by the collar of his uniform, shaking him. "I thought I told you to stay away from Kyoko!" he said, snarling. He pulled back his arm, preparing for the punch.

Reborn paled, Leon transforming into a gun. No! At that angle that kid would do more than just bruise Tsuna!

SMASH!

Tsuna crumpled to the ground like a limp doll. Mochida sneered, shaking off the blood. He never took another step before Reborn shot him straight through the chest.

He would dispose of the body later. Reborn looked over Tsuna, grimacing over the amount of blood. Internal bleeding? Contrary to belief, it was quite easy to die from being punched in the face. Your skull could only protect so much and there were still points of vulnerabilities, your ears, your eyes. Enough force could shake and rattle the brain.

There were days that Reborn wished he studied medicine more fervently. Today was one of those days. Even with Sun Flame's healing ability, Reborn was not a brain surgeon. He could not guide the healing part of his Sun Flames (an aspect he rarely used and admittedly was largely out of practice with) with the precision it would need. Not to mention the potential issue of applying Flames anywhere near the brain. This would need Shamal's expertise or a hospital.

Reborn whipped out his phone, dialing for an ambulance. He rattled off the information, eyes never leaving Tsuna.

"Tsuna," Reborn said harshly. "Focus, stay awake."

Tsuna blinked at him, eyes out of focus. "Reborn?" he mumbled, speech slurring.

"Stay awake. The ambulance is on its way," Reborn said. Was Tsuna's jaw broken? There was more than enough blood spilling out of his mouth.

Tsuna blinked once, twice, then closed his eyes. The rise and fall of his chest stopped and his body going limp.

"Tsuna?!" Reborn said, shaking the teenager's shoulder. Where was that ambulance? He swore violently, Sun Flames gathering. He would do it blind if he had too. "You're not dying on me. You're not." This entire mess was maddening. Crazy impossible. Reborn refused to accept it. He ref-

Reborn woke up.

* * *

I love red herrings.

Please leave a review on your way out.


	3. Chapter 3

Quoting. So much quoting. Reborn twitched as he heard the exact same thing for the third time.

They said once was an accident, twice was a coincidence, but three times was enemy action.

But line for line, Tsuna and Nana faithfully delivered their exact same words without missing a single beat. Reborn repeated his exact lines too, carefully watching the reactions. Nothing seemed out of place.

How maddening.

Reborn had no idea what was going on or who was responsible for it but somehow, he was trapped in… a loop of some sort. Whether it was a loop, an illusion or a dream, he wasn't sure. Nor was he sure how he had wandered into one in the first place.

Right now, the how didn't matter. Breaking free was his first step.

But a loop. A groundhog's loop like one of those slice of life movies? It seemed to collapse whenever Tsuna died. If the movies could be believed, Reborn needed to find the right combination, most likely in ensuring that Tsuna survived this day, in order to break the loop.

Now that he was aware of it, it should be easy enough to do.

-.-.-

It wasn't.

Reborn stared in horror as this time a car had slammed into Tsuna just as he was crossing the street. His student's thin frame hit the ground, twisting limbs like a broken marionette. Bright red blood spilt over the concrete road, gleaming under the sunlight.

Tsuna hadn't even gotten as far as meeting Kyoko today. No, instead he had run out of the house and straight into a car's path.

He reached out to touch Tsuna's rapidly cooling body. "I will do better," Reborn vowed. He would.

Reborn woke up.

* * *

Short chapter, but pieces have been set. Now we can get moving.

Please leave a review on your way out.


	4. Chapter 4

He learned that he could influence the loop. Just by changing his own words and actions, the following actions that played out were different.

Being polite to Tsuna upon first meeting him and withholding the information about Vongola, meant that Tsuna didn't rush out of the house in a fit of disbelief. It was also enough that Nana and Tsuna didn't directly quote the same words like they had for the last fifteen times.

If it meant that Reborn didn't have to hear so much quoting, he would change his own reactions and words as often as possible. Anything to keep it different sounding.

But fifteen times. Fifteen times of watching Tsuna die over and over again. Each one different, happening at the most random moments and for the oddest reasons. He was used to death, used to people dying. After all, he was responsible for people dying in most times. But it didn't get any easy to watch Tsuna die.

In fact, he was getting sick of Tsuna dying on his watch. Reborn was the World's Greatest Hitman, his skills were unparalleled and unheard of. Yet he couldn't even keep one civilian boy alive for twenty four hours. It was insulting to his skills.

How pitiful.

Tsuna gave him a questioning look as Reborn settled on his shoulder.

"I want to see your school," Reborn said. It was a decent excuse and one that wouldn't have Tsuna delaying them, flailing his arms.

Though the cause always changed, it seemed trying to keep Tsuna home always resulted in a death that was earlier than others. There was a ten minute window where as long as Tsuna left on time, he would leave the house alive. (The path to school was another issue that Reborn had yet to solve.)

That was arguably the hardest part of the loop, the variables. Reborn found that after his meeting with Tsuna and Nana, there were things that always changed, things that most likely would happen, and things that had a fifty fifty chance of happening.

Mochida's appearance from the second loop was one of the things that always changed. In fact, Tsuna had yet to encounter him on his way to school since then. (That meant the older boy got keep his life for a little longer.)

Meeting Kyoko was something that was most likely to happen. So far in all but two of the loops, Tsuna had met Kyoko on the way to school.

The car that potentially killed Tsuna was a fifty fifty chance of happening. It was never the same car, but Reborn had pulled Tsuna out of harm's way six times so far on his way to school.

Speaking of which…

"Stop," Reborn said.

Tsuna hesitated, one foot off the sidewalk. "What?"

Reborn eyed the car coming down the street. It was still a good distance away, but nevertheless. "Wait for the next light."

"But it's okay to walk now?" Tsuna said, gesturing the walk sign.

"Humor me," Reborn said dryly. "And step away from the road."

"Okay," Tsuna said, clearly skeptical, but stepping back.

Reborn mentally let out a sigh of relief as the car passed them. No car accident today.

"Now can I cross?" Tsuna asked, as the walk sign turned on again.

"Yes," Reborn said.

"Oh, there's Kyoko-chan!" Tsuna said, spotting the girl as they turned the corner, waving hello.

Kyoko waved hello back. "Good morning, Tsuna-kun."

Tsuna ducked his head. "Good morning, Kyoko-chan."

"I have to rush ahead today," Kyoko said apologetic. "The teacher asked me to help with something. I'll see you later okay?"

Tsuna waved goodbye to her as Kyoko pushed ahead.

"Who is she?" Reborn asked, mostly to fill the space.

"Sasagawa Kyoko, our school's idol," Tsuna said with a fond smile.

Reborn still maintained that Tsuna had a crush on Kyoko, but he wasn't going to push it again with a Dying Will Bullet. In fact, Reborn wasn't planning on using a Dying Will Bullet until after Tsuna survived this first day.

He kept a careful eye as Tsuna approached the school gate. Reborn held a bated breath, waiting as Tsuna passed the school gate. Today marked the first time Tsuna had made it to school unharmed.

Mentally, he weighed his options. Tsuna should be fine in his classroom. It might be best to scope out for potential death traps to ensure that Tsuna left school in one piece.

Tsuna approached his classroom, stopping right before he slide the door open. "Don't tell me you're coming in too," he asked.

Reborn hopped off his shoulder. "Not today," he said. "Study hard, Dame-Tsuna."

He had a school to scope out.

-.-.-

He had finished exploring the rooftop (noting a loose fence) and was coming back down to explore the next floor. As he came around the corner, Reborn arrived just in time to see a pair of students jeeringly tease Tsuna, pushing him out of the classroom and into hallway. Eyes wide, he darted in a sprint, cursing his short legs. "No!" he shouted.

Reborn had forgotten about the bullies. Figuratively, it had been days ago that Reborn read Tsunayoshi's profile that stated that he had issues with bullies at school. That there were others like Mochida, just as capable of causing harm.

He wasn't fast enough as one of the bullies, pushed too hard and Tsuna lost his footing, falling backwards on the stairs.

Reborn snarled, taking his anger out on the two students by shooting them. He ignored the way their bodies crumpled to the ground as he leapt down the stairs.

At the bottom, Tsuna laid, not moving. The coppery smell of blood filled the air, spilling from the head wound.

"Damnit, damnit," Reborn cursed. "I shouldn't have let him out of my sight."

Reborn woke up.

* * *

Reborn learns a few rules of the loop. Still not enough though.

Happy Holidays.

Please leave a review on your way out.


	5. Chapter 5

Today was the 53th loop. Reborn tiredly went through the motions of the beginning. Every word, every sentence rang falsely to his ears, an old script that quoted exactly word for word. Even Tsuna's reactions had long stopped being amusing.

No, they were still decently amusing. But Reborn was tired of seeing this beginning over and over again. The loop could and would change, but this first hour of meeting Nana, meeting Tsuna, always remained the same with minute changes.

He was tired and frustrated. It was insulting to his skills that he couldn't keep Tsuna alive for a full twenty-four hours.

But…

He wasn't _perfect_. He couldn't be everywhere at once and if this was what the loops were trying to teach him, they were doing a damn good job. It didn't make any less frustrating. Reborn took pride in his skills. He had spent years in honing them to be the best they could be and they weren't enough.

Reborn locked down on his anger. There was no time for that. Today would be the day he got Tsuna to survive the entire day. He could feel it.

"You're… coming with me into my classroom?" Tsuna asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"Yes," Reborn said. He had found out that it was mostly successful when he went with Tsuna to class. Normally he would use a disguise, but today Reborn couldn't care. He was going to stick to Tsuna every step of the way today.

Tsuna looked at him skeptical, but otherwise didn't fight Reborn on it. (Good. Tsuna picked up that Reborn always got his way.)

"Well it's not like my teachers will hate me any less for it," Tsuna mumbled to himself.

Hmm. Nezu was going to die the moment Reborn could spare five minutes to take care of him and hide the body. It didn't matter if Nezu didn't do anything. As a tutor, he was insulted by the man's teaching style.

(And maybe, he didn't quite like how the man was treating Tsuna.)

He wasn't sure how he felt about his student. It was hard to get to know someone when they're were dying on you constantly. Reborn had barely enough time to learn any of Tsuna's little quirks. Any he did learn, it wasn't like he got a chance confirm if it carried over into the newest loop he had been thrown into. But it went beyond the clinical attachment of a client and even the irritation he had about Tsuna being related to Iemitsu had long faded.

Sheer stubbornness in keeping Tsuna alive was what was driving him these days. It was his only goal.

He could wonder about getting to know Tsunayoshi after he broke this loop.

-.-.-

By some miracle, Tsunayoshi had survived the entire day of school. Reborn all but forced him home, hoping for a more controlled environment to protect Tsuna from. At the very least, there were no cars in the house.

Tsuna looked at him irritated, but Reborn got his way and they found themselves home, eating dinner and listening to Nana chatter. Reborn was tense all the way, carefully watching. His eyes were watching, sharp like a hawk, waiting for any signs of something going wrong. Nana had asked if he was alright and Tsuna was frowning. But Reborn brushed it all aside.

"You've gotten more tense as the day has gone on," Tsuna remarked as Reborn had ordered him into his bedroom to finish his homework.

Of course. By this hour, usually, the loop would have reset. This marked the longest that Tsuna had survived so far. Reborn would like to keep it that. He didn't dare to hope, didn't dare to chance thinking about it.

"Focus on your homework," Reborn said in a clip tone. He could not let his guard down. If there was thing he had learned about the loops so far, it was that cause of Tsuna's death could happen at any time, for any reason, even if it had to defy laws of physics in order to twist itself into killing Tsuna.

He still felt somewhat sick to his stomach for the loop that ended with Tsuna hanging from the power pole, tangled and dangling like a broken puppet. Reborn had seen it happen, but even he didn't understand how it was possible for Tsuna to have ended up that way.

Tsuna scowled at him, grumbling. Normally, Reborn would have dished out the bombs as a motivator but… again he wasn't going to chance it. Instead he pointed out all the wrong answers that Tsuna had made and forced the boy to do them again.

Finally, it had gotten late enough and Tsuna's homework was complete. Tsuna crawled into bed, barely casting a second glance at Reborn and fell asleep.

Reborn meanwhile got comfortable and waited for midnight.

Time crawled, so slow. Tsuna remain asleep, unaware and continuing on with his adventure in dreamland. Reborn kept guard, watching, waiting. The moon and the stars glowed in the sky,

He held his breath as midnight approached, slowly.

11:58pm

11:59pm

12:00am

Nothing. Reborn blinked, feeling nothing different. There was no magical feeling of something breaking. Still the date on his phone had changed. He had moved beyond this day.

Just to be sure, he stayed up the rest of the night keeping watch.

-.-.-

"Did you sleep at all?" Tsuna asked, with narrow eyes and a warily expression.

To him, Reborn hadn't moved an inch. Tsuna had shrieked upon waking, seeing Reborn watching him intently. Reborn scoffed at that, but was ultimately in too good of a mood to worry about it. He would get Tsuna back for it later.

He couldn't help but grin, smug, as he caught the date on the newspaper. Nana had greeted him this morning with familiarity and there had been absolutely no quoting.

It looked like the loop had broken.

There was a knock on the door that drew Nana's attention. "Ara, who can that be? Tsu-kun, please watch the stove!"

"Okay," Tsuna said, circling around the table to watch the eggs.

Just as Tsuna approached the stove, Reborn felt a chill go down his spine. He went rigid, eyes snapping to Tsuna's form, just as the stove exploded.

BOOM!

Smoke and fire filled the room. Reborn let out a low hiss of pain, shielding his eyes as shrapnel nicked his arms and face. His Sun Flames automatically flared, healing the pain. "TSUNA!" he shouted in, trying to see through the smoke.

He rushed in, trying to find his student. His breath caught in his throat as the smoke began to clear to find Tsuna's body covered in burns. A piece of metal had hit his stomach, the worst of the damage and ultimately was probably killed him.

But why? Reborn reeled back, taken aback. What did this mean? The loop had broken. Tsuna still died. Did mean this death was permanent with the loop being broken? How had he missed a faulty stove? Reborn had done a full check on everything yesterday.

He had _**failed**_.

No. Impossible. He refused to accept this-

Reborn woke up.

* * *

One step forward, one step back. As if you would escape that easily Reborn.

Happy New Year

Please leave a review.


	6. Chapter 6

**Edit:** I've been receiving notice that some people were having issue accessing the new chapters. It was a website problem that looks like they fixed, but just in case, I reuploaded the chapters for all my recently updated fics.

* * *

"Ara~? Who are you?" Nana asked. She tilted her head with a curious smile. "Are you lost?"

Reborn's heart dropped. That was the first thing Nana had said to him. Word for word, action for action. That meant, any second now, Tsuna was going to coming shrieking downstairs saying he was late.

"HIIIE! I'M GOING TO BE LATE!"

His gut clenched as he saw Tsuna alive and whole. Anger and relief warred inside of him, a tug of war. He was still trapped in this loop, still listening to the same scene playing out in front of him. But that meant Tsuna was still alive. Reborn had a chance to save him again.

Functioning on autopilot, Reborn delivered his lines, half listening to the same words being quoted back to him over and over again and hating it.

The goddamn loop. He took his frustrations and shoved them back, compartmentalizing them for later. Tsuna was about to leave, having reacted in all the right ways. He had to focus. Right now, all he had to do was repeat everything he did yesterday to get Tsuna through this day.

He hopped onto Tsuna's shoulder, ignoring his protests. With a swift and dark glare that reflected his mood, it silenced any further complaints from Tsuna.

"I don't need a tutor," Tsuna said as he began his walk to school.

"Of course, because you don't get ridiculous low grades, failing every subject and having no speakable talents. It's not as if you're on the lowest position of the social ladder, bullied and unwanted by both your peers and teachers," Reborn retorted darkly.

Tsuna reeled back, flinching so hard at Reborn's words, it knocked Reborn off his shoulder. "That's-" Tsuna struggled to get the words out, tears beginning to form in his brown eyes. His arms wrapped around himself, trying to shield himself as he curled inward.

Reborn felt annoyance at his reaction. Even Dino at his weakest had some pride. Dino would have shouted back at him at this point.

Tsuna chose to retreat further into himself and Reborn hated that he was running away from his problem.

His hand twitched for a Dying Will Bullet. This would be a perfect scenario to test it in. Unlike the first blotched time, there was no moment of contentment that could ruin it. Tsuna would either lash back out at him, or actually really flee from his problems. All that anguish and regret at not being able to do better.

If Reborn wanted to take out some of his frustration at Tsuna, well that bonus.

"Then die and be reborn," Reborn said. Without any more hesitation, Reborn fired the Dying Will Bullet.

It hit Tsuna squarely in the forehead, right on mark. Tsuna collapsed, blood spilling on the ground.

Reborn waited for the burst of Dying Will Flames to explode.

And waited.

And waited.

No. Reborn's breath hitched, panic lighting up like wildfire. No. There was no reason for the Dying Will Bullet not to work in this scenario.

He rushed over to checked Tsuna's body, feeling no pulse in his neck. No. Tsuna's vacant brown eyes stared at him, the spark of life gone, snuffed out by Reborn himself.

No.

No! This wasn't supposed to happen. Why didn't the Dying Will Bullet work on Tsuna?! Nothing about this made even the slightest sense! This loop! The Dying Will Bullets! How was he suppo-

Reborn woke up.

* * *

-pats Reborn- There, there. You'll figure it out eventually. Dying Will Bullets still don't work on Tsuna it seems. Hmmm

Also, if you enjoy my writing, please consider supporting my kickstarter, Graveyard Shift: Volume 2. There's only a few days left! You can find more information at www#.#kickstarter#.#com#/#projects/1170238334/graveyard-shift-volume-2

Please leave a review on your way out!


End file.
